Rich Horwath does an exceptional job of quickly understanding your business and then applying the most effective and efficient strategic tools to add significant value to the organization. I would very much recommend Rich to any leader that is looking to improve their strategic thinking, planning and execution to help enhance both top and bottom line. His Strategic Coaching was a great experience!!

Mike Pietsch, Executive Vice President, Carmex

Strategic thinking is the most important skill in the continued pursuit of innovative products and services that lead to competitive advantage. Leaders wrestling with how to configure their core competencies and capabilities to achieve organic growth will find Rich a valuable resource. Rich shares with managers dozens of tools to help their teams develop the skills to create competitive differentiation that customers value.

Jay Tibbets, Vice President, Gander Mountain

Rich's sheer expertise and dedication in the field of strategic thinking is unparalleled. He is truly a dynamic teacher, combining a variety of media to convey valuable concepts and deliver strategy content in a thought-provoking and engaging manner.

Jeanna Lee, Product Manager, W.W. Grainger

Rich is not only an extremely competent thought leader regarding business strategy, but is also an amazing facilitator and presenter. His ability to create a space in which critical insights are both encouraged and required and his sincere desire to see that the teams with whom he engages are successful is readily apparent. I consider myself fortunate to have had the chance to work with Rich and would recommend him as a trusted advisor to any teams about to embark on a Deep Dive of their business strategy.

David Hammond, President, Wonderlic

Rich does an excellent job assisting leaders throughout an organization understand strategy and apply practical strategy tools to their business. His grasp of the topic of strategy along with a comfortable and upbeat style is effective in facilitating strategic thinking and strategy skills development.

Jerry Casey, Chief Operating Officer, Sekisui Diagnostics

Our strategy development group has integrated Rich's strategic concepts and tools into our strategic planning process. These concepts and tools have helped to develop a comprehensive framework that has promoted strategic thinking throughout our organization, with the goal of continually developing new strategic insights and generating new growth.

Beth Cooper, CFO, Chesapeake Utilities

Strategic Coaching

The majority of senior leaders receive little to no professional development each year. Yet, it is their skills, behaviors and decisions that will ultimately make or break the company.

How many of the following challenges do you face?

Rich Horwath on Strategic Coaching

“The business is reaching a critical inflection point and I’m worried that I may be missing things in my strategies.”

“Because I spend so much time running the business and managing my direct reports, I’ve had no time for my own development”

“It’s extremely difficult to get objective feedback on my ideas because very few people internally will risk disagreeing with me.”

“I’m inconsistent in finding the discipline to block out time in my schedule to think, discuss and develop fresh new ideas for the business.”

Ask yourself if you’re as good as you could be in areas such as:

Making strategic trade-offs to better prioritize initiatives

Effectively matching your time allocation with your goals

Evolving the business model to meet future customer needs

Understanding the dynamics of competitive advantage in your market

Championing strategies throughout the organization until successful

Crafting a simple, concise and easily understood strategic plan

If one or more of the challenges rings true and you believe you can improve, then you may find value in expert Strategic Coaching. As CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, a former Chief Strategy Officer and professor of strategy, Rich brings the unique combination of real-world strategy experience and the expertise of a New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestselling author on strategy into your corner. He has provided Strategic Coaching to C-Suite executives, Presidents, General Managers and Vice Presidents to help them more strategically lead their groups.

Strategic Coaching has the following benefits:

Enables you to confidently set strategic direction and minimize risk because you have the opportunity to discuss a range of strategic options with a strategy expert prior to decisions.

Gives you a safe harbor to “think out loud” without having to carefully edit each thought as you do when speaking to colleagues within your organization.

Provides a wealth of developmental tools and activities to build your strategic capabilities.

Allows for honest, objective feedback because Rich has no internal political agenda.

New source of strategic insights to help you achieve your business goals.

Rich Horwath’s Strategic Coaching Process includes four elements:

Discover: Understanding your unique needs and goals.Dialogue: Open and honest conversations about your key business issues.Develop: Enhancing your strategic capabilities through insight exchanges, business updates, plan reviews, and applicable strategy exercises.Direction: Transforming the insights gained through dialogue and development into confident strategic direction for you and your business.

Great leaders including Steve Jobs (Apple), Alan Mulally (Ford), Eric Schmidt (Google) and Jack Welch (GE) all worked with an external coach/advisor.